Picture this: 14-year-old Australian boys are sent abroad where they’re subjected to physical assaults by adult men for petty reasons. There’s blood and bruises. Noses are broken. There would be a national outcry, right? So why is this accepted and tolerated in the name of sport?
This Sunday Age article on under-20s Australian Football Youth Squad player Jason Davidson’s time at ‘an elite Japanese junior soccer team’ as part of his three-year stint at Japanese League feeder club Seiritsu Gakeun was unsettling, to say the least. Jason — currently playing for Hume City in the Victorian Premier League and reportedly being pursued to sign a professional contract by A-League clubs Melbourne Victory, Adelaide United and Gold Coast United — described the “hell” and humiliation he endured at the hands of coaches in Japan.
In the first weeks the young teenager was smacked twice across the face for failing to bow properly before a match. Jason actually considers himself lucky since he witnessed other boys getting “broken noses and all sorts of injuries by the coaches”. Disturbingly, his father — former Socceroo Alan Davidson — knew about the training regime and admitted it ‘broke his heart’. Ultimately the ’spartan’ methods were considered worthwhile because ‘Japan is one of the top five nations for youth development programs’.
That may be the case but at what cost?
There are millions of boys sent to sporting academies whose dreams are never realised, possibly due to injury (hopefully, not inflicted by their coaches). What becomes of the bullied broken hearted then? And do this country’s football authorities have a duty of care to local kids playing the game no matter where they try to make the grade?
It wouldn’t be tolerated here. Ex-Socceroos coach ‘Aussie’ Guus Hiddink stopped this kind of behaviour before guiding underdogs South Korea to the 2002 World Cup semi-finals stage:
“I remember that we watched a session with youth players. Some tactical errors were made. The trainer picked one boy and smacked him in the face. I became furious. I walked up to the coach and sent him off the pitch. Then my players knew I was different.”
It’s fair to say Hiddink — currently coaching the Russian national team and Chelsea in the English Premier League — knows what’s right and wrong in football.
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The word “abuse” comes to mind.
When I was a youngster training and competing in Taekwondo, we were often encouraged to go to train in South Korea — but it was always made very clear that corporal punishment was the norm there, and we should expect to be hit. With sticks. I never went, but I recall being quite accepting of this fact (I may have had a different reaction if I’d actually been faced with the reality, of course), and it didn’t make me want to go any less.
Anwyay, the AOC stepped in to stop the Olympic TKD team getting physically punished when they went over to train there a while back (though some in the TKD community here believed it was part of the training and they should have just hardened up over it), so there obviously are situations where Australian authorities can and will step in, though in this case, I imagine they were paying the Koreans a lot to train the athletes and thus had some leverage. In other cases, such as the soccer one, they may just be able to say “like it or lump it”, because the athletes need them more than they need the athletes.
Its a shame that the report on Jason Davidson was so sensationalized and was reported in the way!! Its such a shame to beat up the truth to sell a story!!! Yes it was tough for Jason in Japan, the culture, the loneliness and the language but to say he was punched or hit “PLEASE LETS KEEP IT IN CONTEXT” its not a war story? geeeez There was never a time Jason was hit or punched or physically assaulted. Oh my god how can these reporters get away with what they say? Utter and complete lies….. No one ever touched Jason!
But the plus from the article is” Jason has realizes its so important which reporters he can trust and generally they are the football writers he see all the time! Not someone who is looking for a story and beefs it up but has nothing to do with football? It was a real lesson for him and I do feel sorry for the Seiritsu School how they have branded it coaches. Jason father – Alan Davidson.